


magic touch

by procrastigaytion



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Takes place during act 1, everybody else is there too, gals being pals..... yknow, rated t for veronica’s potty mouth, spoiler free, spoiler: she says fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24270421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procrastigaytion/pseuds/procrastigaytion
Summary: Something in Serena’s eyes lit up, and she hummed in thought. “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you use magic before. You only stick to physical attacks, and let others do the healing.” She paused. “Is it that you don’t know any magic?”
Relationships: Marutina | Jade/Sena | Serena
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	magic touch

**Author's Note:**

> Time for a fresh start babey

The crackling of the campfire helped Jade settle into a steady rhythm as she cleaned her spear. It was a routine she had developed over the last sixteen years—well, almost sixteen, given that she was too young to properly hold one without smacking herself with it for at least three of those.

In any case, rusty weapons were never a pleasant thing, and she found herself polishing them almost every night until she could see her reflection. Tonight, she ignored the dull ache in her wrist from a bruise she had earned earlier in a fight and let her mind wander.

The group had left the Academie earlier that afternoon, and it kind of gave her a wistful feeling. She learned how to read and write during her travels, and the experiences she had gotten along the way were invaluable, but it still would’ve been nice to attend school. She’d have worn a cute skirt, made friends her age, and stayed up all night in her dorm snacking.

Not that she regretted leaving home. Not at all.

The rustling of leaves and the sound of footsteps beside her snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to see Serena standing above her, wearing a somewhat apologetic smile.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Jade smiled back. “No, not at all.” She shuffled to the side on her log, giving the other girl some room.

Serena sat delicately, smoothing out her dress before laying her hands over her lap. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while as Jade continued to work.

They got on well together, she thought. Even though they had only been travelling together a few weeks, Serena’s mild temperament was like a calm wave, and she could be at ease around her.

Well, she was surprised at how comfortable she was around the rest of the group. There was something about this eccentric band that made her feel right at home when her own home didn’t feel like one.

“Wait a minute,” Serena said suddenly. She took a gentle hold of Jade’s hand, prying it off the spear and into her lap. “You’re hurt. Did you not notice?”

“Oh.” Jade could only watch as the warm hand holding hers turned it over to get a better look at the bruise, and the soft purple eyes looked back up at her in concern. “I guess I didn’t. It doesn’t hurt much, though.”

Something in Serena’s eyes lit up, and she hummed in thought. “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you use magic before. You only stick to physical attacks, and let others do the healing.” She paused. “Is it that you don’t know any magic?”

“That’s...” Jade tore her gaze away, looking at her feet. Memories flooded back of accidentally setting Rab’s backpack on fire when she only meant to use a simple buffing spell. In hindsight, it was pretty funny, and they had a good laugh about it once they were certain that nothing of value had been lost (except a porn magazine, though Jade wouldn’t exactly call it _valuable_ despite his insistence). Still, she never attempted another spell again, and was more than happy to kick things to death.

Serena seemed to understand her current plight, and she giggled behind her hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’re the best physical fighter out of all of us anyway, and the rest of us have the magic under control. However...” 

“However...?” Jade didn’t like where this was going.

“I think it would be useful if you at least learned how to heal. If we ever get separated for some reason, goddess forbid, having healing spells on you can be the difference between life and death.”

And there it was. She made valid points, so valid that Jade couldn’t find a way to refute her. It wasn’t as though she’d be able to refuse even if she could; for some reason, nobody could ever say no to Serena. For starters, she was too sweet and kind for anybody to resist, and then there was the matter of Veronica.

Who was now currently sitting against a tree, nodding off to a book in her lap. Even so, Jade would never want to risk invoking the little firecracker’s wrath, no matter how good she was in a fight.

“All right. You have a point. So, should we start now?” she replied eventually after weighing her options.

“We have the perfect opportunity right here, so why not?” Serena let go of her hand, and she immediately missed the warmth and almost considered tugging it back. “A simple Heal spell was the first thing I learned as a child, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Just hold your uninjured hand over the other, and focus on sending your healing energies through it.”

“Healing... energies?” Jade wasn’t sure she had a magical bone in her body, let alone healing ones.

“It’s innate, within every person. Some have more potential than others, but almost everyone has enough magic to carry out a basic spell or two.”

Jade slowly nodded at her explanation, and turned her focus to her bruised wrist. Serena made it sound so easy, and she didn’t want to let her down.

Right. Hovering her other hand over it, she cleared her mind of everything else except the healing. Everything else faded away, except Serena, who was a steady presence beside her.

There was no change in the feeling in her wrist, or in the rest of her body, for that matter. She stayed still a few seconds more, willing whatever magic was inside her to _please hurry up_ and not make her look like an idiot in front of a pretty girl.

She sighed, just about ready to throw in the towel and apologise.

Then there was a loud explosion followed by a ear-piercing scream and a yell of “ _WHAT THE FUCK?!_ ”

“Language!” came another voice, definitely Sylvando’s.

Jade whipped her head around just in time to see Veronica leap about ten feet in the air, shouting expletives all the way. The tree she had been sitting against was now nothing more than a sorry mess of ashes, and her book had been flung across the campsite in her surprise, narrowly missing Erik’s head in its path.

Jade raised a hand to her mouth. “Was... that me?”

Everyone else was now looking at her. Heck, even _Eleven_ had torn himself away from the forge, a normally impossible feat, to join in the staring contest.

The silence seemed to stretch on forever until Serena finally broke it by giving her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Ah... Maybe it would be best if you stuck to physical fighting for now,” she offered.

“Maybe it would,” Jade echoed sullenly, sinking back into her seat.

Ignoring the fact that Veronica was now staring daggers at them both, Serena took her hand again and made quick work of healing it. The ache dissipated almost immediately, and Jade sighed in relief.

But this time, she didn’t let go, and took to idly tracing patterns in Jade’s palm with her thumb. “Then I suppose we should try to stick together, in case you get hurt and there’s nobody else around,” she said with ease, almost too smooth for it to be natural.

Jade’s mind whirled to a stop. Was this her way of flirting with her? Not that she was complaining— she often found her eyes wandering towards Serena when they all sat around the campfire, and enjoyed listening to her read stories from her favourite book.

“I’d like that,” was what she settled on for a reply. Her fingers wrapped around Serena’s, and for a moment, all she could see was her face glowing in the light.

“If you two lovebirds are done flirting, could you help me clean this up?” Veronica said suddenly, breaking her out of whatever world she had been in. “If I can’t sleep because of ashes dirtying my sleeping bag, I’m blaming you.”

“Sorry, Veronica,” Serena apologised, and stood up, flashing a quick smile to Jade before returning to her sister.

Before leaving, Veronica gave Jade a look that spoke in volumes. _If you ever do anything to hurt her, you won’t even be alive to regret it._

Not that she needed the warning, but to be fair, she already had a similar speech stored in her mind for whenever El and Erik decided it was finally time to stop tip-toeing around each other.

The worries of an older sibling, she supposed.

“I’ll come too,” she said, and hurried to join the twins.

“Just make sure you don’t blow anything up this time,” Veronica huffed.

Jade nodded towards Serena. “I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll leave the magic in your hands.”

**Author's Note:**

> I got hit with the dqxi writing worms and they won’t leave me 
> 
> Honestly for a long time I was going back and forth on writing for this game bc the fandom is small and idk if anyone cares about what I have to write!! But my friend encouraged me to write this so I went “what the heck let’s do this” and here you go. Enjoy the wlws!


End file.
